Page 34 of Nothing to Lose: Lost Trilogy: Part 1
“Bricks had me clean some things at the old farmhouse.”
The mention of the farmhouse catches my attention. The building is on the property where Wrecker took me twelve years ago to teach me how to ride a motorcycle.
I don’t say anything, just wait it out as Shortie almost bounces up and down in excitement. A look at Sully just shows that he is watching this as closely as I am.
“I found something you’ll like,” he promises.
“Just spill it, fucker,” I finally snap, “so we can all go on with our day.”
Shortie sticks his hand into the inside pocket of his club cut and brings it back out. He drops a small stack of letters. Possibly. Maybe. I don’t know.
“What’s all this?” I ask in fascination when I see that he is waiting for me to share in his excitement.
“Letters,” he points out the obvious.
“No shit, Shortie. What do they have to do with me?”
There’s a long pause during which my heart starts pounding in my head. I need a blunt like I need my next breath of air. Something big is about to happen, and I don’t know that I can handle it.
“They’re your mother’s.”
11
Emily
The flightto Dallas is not as fun as I was hoping. Becca has been sitting next to me like a bump on a log, barely saying anything. She’s been smiling from time to time, but I could tell her mind was elsewhere.
“It all looks so bright here, doesn’t it?” I try to make small talk and lean over her to take a peek out the window since I ended up taking the aisle seat.
Becca just nods, but doesn’t say anything. I try really hard not to show how annoyed I am with her behavior.
“Are you okay?” I finally ask when I see I’m getting nowhere. I feel like a crappy friend now that she looks all doom and gloom. This was supposed to be our fun girls’ time.
“Yeah,” is all she says, but she does not sound fine in the least.
“Do you think you’ll run into him?”
Few days after my disastrous, yet liberating visit at Steve’s office, Becca came back home from Texas. She had gone there to meet some distant cousin, who, according to her, ditched her almost as soon as they met. In a dive bar, no less.
That’s how she met a guy. They ended up spending the entire week she was there together. She came home all full of hickeys like a teenager, and with stars in her eyes, even though she did say that it was complicated and that she’d never see him again.
In spite of that, she got way too excited when I asked her if she wanted to come to Texas with me so that I could get my mother’s estate settled.
“I highly doubt it,” she snorts nervously. “He, uh, he lives in Austin. I think it’s a few hours away from Dallas.”
I’m just staring at her, waiting to see what else she’s going to say, but she’s got nothing. I fight the annoyed sigh I want to let out.
“Oh, I think you’re right.”
“Stop it,” she shoves at my shoulder playfully when she notices me not looking away from her.
We are at the gate now, and the other passengers from the back are starting to get up from their seats and grab their bags from the overhead compartments.
“Move it, slow poke,” Becca teases me when I take my time with the bags.
“Who you calling a slow poke?” I eye her in shock. “I’ll have you know that I was the star of my track team back in the day.”
I really was. That’s the only sport I was capable of. I’ve always been a fast walker, even as a kid, and since I didn’t show any outstanding talents when it came to soccer, softball or volleyball, my father suggested track. And I freakin’ shined.
